Oceania in the Desert: A QuantCrit Analysis of the (Under)Counting of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Students at an AANAPISI-HSI

Abstract

Most education research uses the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), often leaving the logic undergirding the IPEDS racial classification system (i.e., categorization and counting) unquestioned. Framed by Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) principles, this research demonstrates how the NCES IPEDS racial classification misrepresents and undercounts students. Specifically, we show how IPEDS guidance around racial classification misrepresents the number of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA&NHPI) undergraduates, with particular attention to NHPI students, at a single institution. We show the ways in which IPEDS logic leads to undercounting, namely that, based on the NCES IPEDS racial classification system, most undergraduates identifying as NHPI are classified as Two or More Races and Hispanic or Latino. A similar pattern of suppression is found to varying degrees for students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Black or African American. Our findings complicate the taken-for-granted nature of IPEDS racial classification and have implications for serving racially minoritized student groups and for institutions that may qualify as enrollment-based Minority-Serving Institutions.

Keywords:

• QuantCrit
• data disaggregation
• Critical Race Theory
• multiracial
• Minority-Serving Institutions

Acknowledgments

We especially thank Drs. Robert T. Teranishi, Rose Ann E. Gutierrez, and Florie Mendiola for their support of this project. We extend gratitude to APIA Scholars, the funders, Dr. Julie Ajinkya, and Leanne Davis, for their unwavering belief in this work. Finally, a special thank you to Kelsey Heckert, the Data Manager at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, for her data prowess and assistance in the final AANAPISI calculation checks.

Open Research Statements

Study and Analysis Plan Registration

There is no registration associated with this study.

Data, Code, and Materials Transparency

The materials, data, and code associated with this study are not publicly available.

Design and Analysis Reporting Guidelines

Not applicable.

Transparency Declaration

The lead author (the manuscript’s guarantor) affirms that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained.

Replication Statement

This manuscript reports an original study.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 The terms race and ethnicity have been used interchangeably in the United States (Viano & Baker, 2020; Wimmer, 2008). Following Baker et al. (2022), we use racial to refer to ethnoracial origins and racialized groups.

2 Although these categories situate American Indians as occupying a racialized identity, they also have a legal and political relationship with the federal government (Brayboy, 2005). This relationship recognizes the inherent sovereignty of American Indians through the constitution, treaties, and federal statutes and acknowledges American Indian tribes as self-determined governments (Exec. Order No. 13336, 2004).

3 Although NCES IPEDS uses Asian, we interchange its use with Asian American.

4 Following Garcia et al. (2020), we use white in lowercase as a grammatical way to decenter whiteness in research and writing.

5 We use Latina/o/x unless Hispanic or Latino (or another term) is used in cited work, in reference to official IPEDS classification, or the Hispanic-Serving Institution designation. For more about the contested use of Hispanic and Latina/o/x, see Salinas (2020), Salinas and Lozano (2019), and Villanueva Alarcón et al. (2022).

6 Terms, including Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA), Asian Pacific American (APA), Asian Pacific Islander (API), and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI), represent the evolving nature of how the Asian American and NHPI community identifies itself. We use AA&NHPI to distinguish between the two politically and socially constructed racial groups aggregated under this one panethnic label. For reference, see Gogue et al. (2022).

7 The “ninth island” nickname references Las Vegas as an extension of the eight major islands of Hawai‘i. However, we urge readers to be cautious of nicknames that trivialize the history of colonization and sociopolitical factors that have contributed to the diaspora and displacement of Native Hawaiians (see Hall, 2015; Thomas et al., 2012).

8 Enrollment-based MSIs include Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (ANNH), AANAPISIs, HSIs, HSI Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Articulation programs (HSI STEM), Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI), and Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (HSI PPOHA). For more information, see Nguyen et al. (2023).

9 The eligible institution requirements detailed in Section 312(b) of the Higher Education Act specify that an institution enrolls needy students, has lower than average educational and general expenditures per full-time equivalent undergraduate student, is legally authorized to provide an educational program, and is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered.

10 PBIs are an exception because PBIs must meet the eligible institution requirements detailed in Section 318(b)(1) of the Higher Education Act.

11 As defined in the Higher Education Act Title III Part F Section 371, the enrollment of needy students is defined as “not less than 50 percent of the undergraduate students enrolled in an academic program leading to a degree: (A) in the second fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the determination is made, were Federal Pell Grant recipients for such year; (B) come from families that receive benefits under a means-tested Federal benefit program (as defined in paragraph (5)); (C) attended a public or nonprofit private secondary school (i) that is in the school district of a local educational agency that was eligible for assistance under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.] for any year during which the student attended such secondary school; and (ii) which for the purpose of this paragraph and for that year was determined by the Secretary (pursuant to regulations and after consultation with the State educational agency of the State in which the school is located) to be a school in which the enrollment of children counted under a measure of poverty described in section 1113(a)(5) of such Act [20 U.S.C. 6313(a)(5)] exceeds 30 percent of the total enrollment of such school; or (D) are first-generation college students (as that term is defined in Section 1070a–11(h) of this title), and a majority of such first-generation college students are low-income individuals.”

12 An institution may submit different enrollment data in the MSI application. However, the submitted enrollment data must be verifiable from a federal or state data system (J. Cottrell, personal communication, July 11, 2023).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by an “NHPI Student Success: Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Students in Higher Education” research grant administered through APIA Scholars and funded by the Ascendium Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Nakupuna Foundation, and Walmart Foundation.